February 22, 2012

I'm very sorry

There's a phrase which is a very formal and abject apology which sounds to me like it's moshi wa ke arimasen but that's almost certainly not correct. One example of it is ep 11 of Daimaou at 18:44 (BD rip).

What is it?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Japanese at 09:34 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 46 words, total size 1 kb.

1 It is indeed a very formal apology.
http://rut.org/cgi-bin/j-e/dosearch?sDict=on&H=PS&L=J&T=moshiwakearimasen&WC=none&FG=r&BG=b&S=26
"Wake" is a nebulous word that sort of means "situation", "circumstance", "what we're talking about". Also seen in phrases like "Sono wake ja nai!" ("that's not right/the case at all!"), frequently shouted by embarrassed haremettes.

Posted by: AlexG at February 22, 2012 09:48 AM (JDk7J)

2 申し訳する ("moushiwake suru") means "say apologies". So, "moushiwake ga arimasen" means "there are no words of apology" literally, but actually means that there are no adequate words of apology for such an eggregious fault.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at February 22, 2012 09:51 AM (G2mwb)

3 Thanks! I missed that the first syllable was long. With that knowledge, I found it in the dictionary.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 22, 2012 10:07 AM (+rSRq)

4 Odd that the dictionary uses it with Arimasen, instead of the more formal Gozaimasen.

What's next?  Moshiwake ja nai, yo!

Posted by: Mauser at February 24, 2012 02:02 AM (cZPoz)

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